Prologue

"Drake, your team moves round the back. Dawson, take Nicey Spice and wait round the front in case they take the traditional exit. Batman, I want one of those barking arseholes at every side of this building. Stringer… Oi! Metal Mickey, stop threatening Bammo. You're needed to identify the girls. Are you ready, ladies and gents? Let's get this place torn apart in record time and be home in time for Robot Wars."

"Gene, I told you, you are not getting a radio controlled Matilda for Christmas."

~X~

Her head hurt.

It was throbbing like nothing she had ever felt before.

She had pretty much expected that, of course, but even so it hurt like hell.

The moment she felt the searing pain and heard the thwack of the object against the back of her head she knew she'd been ambushed. In that split second, just before she lost consciousness, her mind went through enough information to fill an encyclopaedia. She knew that within a moment the man she'd grasped would be free and legging it. She knew there were two colleagues in the corridor outside and desperately hoped they would be able to take on her suspect and her attacker. She knew that someone would be on hand to call her an ambulance. She wondered who was going to do the terrible job of calling her next of kin. Then she realised she didn't have any next of kin and with that came her final realisation before the darkness took her over and her body fell to the floor.

X

"Three, two, one – activate!"

"Gene!"

"Alright, go, go, go, go. Move it!"

X

Very slowly she opened one eye. She wasn't in that grotty warehouse now. She could feel the air on her face as the chilly February wind began to bite at her skin. Groaning, clutching her head and struggling to right herself, she slowly began to rise to a sitting position with the world twisting and spinning in her concussed field of vision. Finally persuading her eyes to fully open, she blinked and stared.

Chaos.

X

"Oof! BATMAN! Watch it, I just got a dog in the head!"

"Sorry, Guv…"

"They're heading out the front! Jake, it's up to you."

"With you, Ma'am."

X

"What…" she grasped the wire mesh fence behind her and used it to pull herself to her feet as her eyes widened, "who…?"

She blinked a few times and took one tiny, shaky step after another towards the action. From a small, grubby building not unlike the one she'd taken a blow to the head in, people were running and officers were pouncing. Some were in uniform, others were not. There were dogs as well, some of which were going a little crazy.

"Oh my god…"

One step after another, she edged closer to the confusion, her mouth dropped open and her eyes darted from side to side, just trying to take it all in. That's when her attention was caught by a woman, maybe ten years her senior, giving chase to two unpleasant looking gentlemen who she managed to run into a corner. Grasping each one by the back of their dark jackets, the woman addressed them.

"You're nicked," she told one of them, "and you're nicked."

"No, it can't… can't be… it can't…"

Her eyes moved downward and took in the dated uniform that clad her body. She swallowed hard and worked on staying upright as her legs shook and trembled. It felt like a dream, but she'd never, ever had a dream that felt so real. Her vision returned to the chaos around her where a young brunette was attempting to restrain a dog that was barking furiously at a suspect who appeared to have had an accident in his pants, the guy jamming another suspect so hard against the fence that his pants were about to suffer the same fate and what appeared to be a collaboration between Boyzone anf the Spice Girls as what seemed to be Ronan Keating and Scary Spice tackled another to the ground between them.

"Shoebury, get in there and make sure the bloody computers stay in one piece!"

"Shoebury?" she gasped and drew her hands to her mouth as she watched a tall figure with vague curls half-run towards the building followed by a dark hared man in uniform with a dog pulling him in the same direction.

"Wait, Si, I want to double check for explosives."

"Oh my god," she gasped. She knew that voice. She even knew the back of that head.

"Nailer's got you paranoid, you know."

"Just want to be on the safe side!"

"They're not all going to put explosives in their computers, you know!"

"Guv."

Her head and attention snapped back in the other direction at the sound of a female voice and immediately her legs began to give way beneath her, "Got two."

The shock of blonde hair, the piercings, the ink peeking out from beneath her clothes…

"Oh my god," she could barely believe it. She couldn't believe it. Was this even real? She had taken a pretty hard blow to the head, but –

Before she could think about it any longer a speedy figure tore out from the warehouse, clad in black from head to toe. He barrelled in her direction with a barking lunatic in hot pursuit, followed by the uniformed brunette and Scary Spice.

"Stop him!" the brunette yelled.

Stop which one? The suspect or the dog? Instinct kicked in and she made a grab for the suspect but the dog had gained so much momentum that he couldn't stop and struck her with enough force to knock her flying. Her back hit the metal fence and winded her as the suspect scrambled back to his feet, only to be brought down by the dog.

Her head was spinning; she felt dizzy and disorientated and so much about the situation made little sense to her, but at the same time so much finally started to fall into place.

"Oh my god, are you alright?"

"Are you hurt?"

She tried to pull herself together for long enough to reply but she was still in a state of shock and not together enough to respond as the brunette and Scary Spice reached her and knelt down beside her.

"Are you OK?" Scary Spice asked her again.

"I'm so sorry, he gets a bit over excited sometimes," the brunette told her.

"What's your name?" Scary spice asked, "are you with us?"

She blinked and tried to form a coherent sentence but only managed a

"What?"

"'Couse she is," the brunette nodded, "starting today, aren't you?"

She swallowed, her mouth increasingly dry.

"I am?" she whispered.

"You got your warrant card with you, love?" Scary spice asked.

"Um…" She had no idea. Her hands trembled as she reached into her pocket and tried to find it but a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Found them."

Her heart almost froze in her chest as she looked up and saw the pretty woman walking towards the slightly battered suspect who was now cuffed and being dragged back onto his feet by a large man in a heavy coat.

"The pills or the prozzies?" the large man asked.

"Both," the woman said, looking fairly pleased, "Kim's taking the girls to the cars."

"Miss? Are you alright?" The brunette sounded concerned but she couldn't speak. She couldn't respond at all. Very slowly she got to her feet and, as though she couldn't see the two ladies beside her, she began to slowly walk forward, staring in shock and astonishment.

"Been a good afternoon all in all," the large man responded, giving the cuffed man a fairly heavy shove, "never mind Robot Wars, we'll be home in time for Whittle."

"I've told you, Gene, I'm not watching anything on Channel Five."

"Gene?" she closed her eyes and swallowed. It had been a long time since she'd heard that name, "that's Gene Hunt?" she forced herself to open her eyes again and took a better look at him; the dark blonde hair, the leather gloves and the coat that seemed to have a good couple of decades under its belt. "That's Gene Hunt. Shit."

"You've still got sand in yer pants because the retuning prat scratched the telly top."

"It's your fault anyway! I thought you said tuna! I thought you were making fishy biscuits, otherwise I'd have been there to supervise!"

"Stop yer trap from flapping and get these gentlemen a nice cosy cell for the night, Drakey."

"Oh my god," she swallowed hard. She felt strange, almost sick but not in a bad way. Far too much emotion rose inside of her and threatened to throttle her. She shook her head and took another step forward in disbelief, "It's real. It's true." She swallowed again, "it's all true."

"What is?" the brunette seemed increasingly concerned by her behaviour.

Slowly she turned around, biting down hard on her lip.

"Everything," she whispered.

Finally her legs crumbled beneath her. It was all too much, she couldn't take any more. Her eyes closed as her head spun faster and faster and the gravity of the situation brought her crashing to the ground.

X

From a distance, Alex and Gene exchanged a glance, then a sigh, and finally Alex spoke.

"Are you going to get the smelling salts or shall I?"

~xXx~

A/N: Yikes, here we are again, start of another instalment. Welcome to 1998. Thanks for following thus far and I hope you enjoy this fic. We're back to form with a good helping of angst – and plenty of silliness as well :P

Thanks once again to Jess for helping me pick the title from a whacking-great short-list when I was freaking out because I couldn't narrow them down! Updates on this fic might be sparser than you're used to for a number of reasons but don't worry, it doesn't mean I'm not writing or not continuing. Thanks for being patient! I will also be starting a Doctor Who crossover with my fics later in the week. Don't worry, you won't be missing anything by not reading it but if you do it does fit in with canon.

I should just have the disclaimer tattooed on my forehead – I don't own A2A or any part of it You know which bits I own, even down to the bloody canteen sprouts. Lastly, I hope that you enjoy this story – and thank you so much for continuing to follow this series. You've no idea how happy it makes me to know people are still enjoying it :)